


Untouched / Unbroken

by bleuchees



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Canon Compliant, M/M, Soulmates, Takes place during Teiko, so uh expect that good good Teiko angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 19:58:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13372008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bleuchees/pseuds/bleuchees
Summary: Prompt: You live in a world where your soulmate is unable to hurt you, intentionally or otherwise.





	Untouched / Unbroken

He didn’t know what it meant at first. All that Tetsuya knew was that Akashi was advancing on him, lightning-speed, and shifted his weight almost faster than Tetsuya’s eyes could follow. And then Akashi collided with him and Tetsuya realized that he hadn’t moved out of the way. Akashi’s ankle break didn’t work on him.

The next day, he felt Akashi’s eyes following him. They were always too wide, too insincere. He kept his head down and avoided eye contact. Tetsuya didn’t know how to deal with Akashi anymore.

It must have been that it felt almost like a failure. Almost, but not quite, not enough to keep Akashi’s attention forever. He turned back to his regular duties as captain. Tetsuya resumed staring at his back.

There was an idea growing in his head. It was a niggling thought, one that rested for hours at a time but never truly slept or died. An idea: what if he slipped a blade across Akashi’s skin. Would it cut. Would it hurt. What if-

he used just a pin, just a tiny pin. Small enough that it would barely register. Just enough to know. Of course, as soon as he started considering it, logistical problems cropped up. Even more so than there used to be, there was an air of the untouchable about Akashi. It wasn’t something he tangibly felt until Tetsuya thought about reaching out to touch him - a casual arm around the shoulder, or fist bump, or a pat on the back - and realized that he had never touched Akashi before. He couldn’t remember touching him once since Akashi had poked him in the chest, and even then it was through layers of clothing. Still, Tetsuya kept a pin stuck through his arm band, thinking a moment might come. It didn’t.

Instead, weeks passed and the second middle school basketball tournament came, the Teiko team gradually becoming more fractured and apathetic with each day. Tetsuya watched as the first string practice dropped Aomine, then Murasakibara, then Kise, leaving only Midorima, Tetsuya, and Akashi to practice in relative silence. Tetsuya knew he was the outsider here. But he was the one person who couldn’t afford to leave, so he stayed and suffered the growing strain of Akashi and Midorima’s friendship stretching over each silence. The strain of seeing the inevitable end and being unable to stop it, smothered in apathy, that keep stretching and stretching-

until it snapped. And as Tetsuya sobbed, doubled over, uncomprehending, all he could keep thinking was  _I thought he was my-_

He met Akashi on the school grounds, both of them peripherally aware that this meeting was coming as though it was scheduled, two bodies swinging around each other but unable to ignore the laws of gravity. And maybe those words had been ringing in his head, maybe he’d been trying to fill the disappointed shadow that had filled him since Aomine punched his arm a little too hard and a bruise showed up and he knew, he knew he wasn’t the one-

“I thought you were my soulmate.”

The words felt wrung out of him, painful and wrong, his whole body stiff with the unnatural feeling of it. He regretted the words even as they left his mouth, eyes fixated on Akashi’s lapel, unable to even look him in the eye.

“My soulmate would have to be my equal.” Akashi’s tone was even and condescending, the way it always was these days.

Tetsuya’s fists clenched. He squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to watch Akashi walk away, filled with a swirling mess of shame and anger and sadness and betrayal, but he knew it. He already knew they weren’t for each other. He knew it the moment he stared at the screen, at a damning 111:1, down to his bones. Down to the core of his being.

A soulmate couldn’t hurt you this way.

**Author's Note:**

> just a short lil one-shot i originally posted on my tumblr ^^ and then i realized i didn't want to lose it / have it get buried to where i couldn't find it again because i actually like this one, as short as it is. i might get around to continuing it at some point


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